


Falling into Empty Space

by Leigh553



Category: Marianas Trench
Genre: Bullying, Gen, Implied/Referenced Drug Addiction, Implied/Referenced Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 17:58:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7855267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leigh553/pseuds/Leigh553
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josh has an uncomfortable encounter with a group of guys at his school and has to decide what to do about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling into Empty Space

**Author's Note:**

> This was written purely for entertainment purposes and is not meant to offend in any way. The events in this story are based on a true story but the story itself is completely fictional.

Seventeen year old Josh Ramsay sat in his room thinking about the events of the previous Friday. It wouldn’t have even happened if Mr. Johnson wasn’t such an asshole, why did he have to actually enforce the showering after gym rule? Josh couldn’t figure out why Danny had even done that, he could have humiliated him in so many ways but instead he’d taken a picture and so far done nothing with it. The wondering what Danny was going to do was the worst part; was he going to walk into school today to naked pictures of him all over the school? Was Danny going to post the pictures online at some point? Not that it would be a big deal anyway since hardly anyone at school even owned a computer. God, what was wrong with Danny Josh wondered and why did he choose Josh of all people to torture.

Friday had started out the same as any other school day for Josh. He had gotten up at 7am and managed to make it to school in time for first period; he had planned on skipping after third period but had decided to stay. He should have skipped to get high like he planned then this nightmare wouldn’t have happened. Everything was perfectly fine up until sixth period gym, which in retrospect was really fucking suspicious considering Danny never left him alone that long, when Danny mocked him all class. Even that wasn’t so bad and Josh had thought he was going to make it through the day unscathed. He would have been safe if it wasn’t for Mr. Johnson forcing everyone to shower after class even though it was the last class of the day.

Josh was just about to get out of the shower and get dressed when the shower curtain was violently pulled open and there was Danny and one of his friends, the kids name was Kyle if Josh was remembering right. Josh turned around in shock only to be met with a flash and then the curtain closed again and Danny and Kyle were gone. It took Josh a few minutes of standing there in shock to process what had actually happened and when he did he got dressed and in his car and home as quickly as possible. That all happened on Friday and Josh had been worrying about it all weekend and now it was Monday, time to face the music. 

“Josh, you better be up and ready for school” called Mrs. Ramsay, “breakfast is ready so get down here”. 

“I’m coming Mom” Josh shouted back. He grabbed his book bag as he ran out his door and downstairs to the kitchen. He could feel his parents eyes on him as he started to eat, get caught in the midst of an eating disorder one time and suddenly no one trusts you to take care of yourself. Josh chose to just let it go since he had more pressing matters to worry about this morning.

“Have a good day at school Honey” Mrs. Ramsay called as Josh left. She worried that her sons’ day would be anything but good; she wasn’t as dumb or oblivious as Josh thought she was. She knew her son was being harassed at school even if she didn’t know the details and he had seemed anxious before leaving for school. Mrs. Ramsay made a mental note to question Josh later.

Josh was glad he had the twenty minute walk to school to calm himself down and prepare for what was going to greet him when he got there. He wasn’t sure which would be worse, finding the pictures all over the school or knowing Danny had only taken them for his own enjoyment. Of course, there was also the possibility of blackmail but Josh couldn’t imagine what Danny could possibly want from him. The only thing anyone ever wanted from him was to use his dad’s studio and Danny wasn’t exactly the musical type. As he came up to the school Josh took a deep breath and steeled himself for what he was about to encounter inside.

When Josh entered the school he discovered that everything was completely normal, no posters anywhere or anyone laughing at him. This was a scenario he had contemplated but hadn’t actually expected to happen; somehow this was worse than finding pictures everywhere would have been. At least if Danny had put the pictures around school the waiting and the anticipation would be over. Now he still had to worry about whatever sick thing Danny still had planned.

“Hey Josh, how was your weekend?” Josh spun around, heart about to beat out of his chest, only to find that it was just his friend Matt.

“I’m going to guess it sucked based on how jumpy you are” continued Matt, “you really need to relax man; the whole world isn’t out to get you”.

“My weekend was fine, dude” Josh responded with an eye roll, “you should try not sneaking up on people. Did you practice Sicker Things over the weekend? We have a show on Wednesday so you need to have it perfect by then”.

“Yes Dad, I practiced until my sister threatened to duck-tape my mouth shut” answered Matt cheekily, “you worry too much. We’re gonna be great”.

“I hope so; anyway I have to get to class. See you in band” said Josh as he turned to head to his locker.

“See you” Matt waved at Josh as he walked off, the older boy could be so strange. Sometimes Matt wondered why he was even friends with someone like Josh but then he always remembered how crazy talented and genuinely nice Josh was.

Some random asshole tripped Josh on his way to class causing him to drop his books and smash his shoulder against a locker but that wasn’t anything unusual. Other than that one incident he made it until band unscathed. The only time he’d seen Danny was at lunch and Danny hadn’t so much as acknowledged his existence. All of this was making Josh very uneasy. The not knowing was killing him, maybe that was Danny’s way of torturing him; if that was his plan then it was working. Upon arriving at the band room Josh took his seat next to Matt like he did every Monday.

“Hey man, how were morning classes?” greeted Matt grinning at Josh.

“Hey, they were uneventful, yours?” responded Josh beginning to tune his guitar.

“They were fine. So, did you practice your part for today at all or did you spend all your time working on band stuff?” asked Matt casually.

“What do you think? Obviously I worked on Marianas stuff, this stuff is so easy a five year old could play it” retorted Josh, “Did you practice it?”

“Of course” answered Matt as if it should be obvious. “So you want to come over tonight and we can practice Sicker Things together?”

“Sure, meet me in the parking lot after last period”. They could walk to Matt’s together after school; it was only a few blocks further than Josh’s house.

Once the class actually started it went by pretty quickly and Josh and Matt were both able to perform their solos expertly and were assigned more difficult ones for next class. Josh’s last class of the day was gym and he had been dreading it all day, what if Danny did something else to him while he was in the shower? He considered skipping but decided against it since he wasn’t in the mood for a lecture. Surprisingly, the only acknowledgement Danny gave him was throwing a basketball at his face; which, while not overly friendly was pretty tame for Danny.

By the time he got showered and gathered his books Matt was waiting impatiently for him in the parking lot. The entire walk to Matt’s Josh debated with himself over whether or not he should tell Matt what Danny did. On one hand telling someone would give him someone to help him figure out what to do but on the other Matt might kill Danny or want him to do something ridiculous like report it to the police. Josh was no closer to making a decision when they reached Matt’s house so he decided not to tell him, at least for the time being.

“So, are your parent’s home?” Josh asked silently praying that the answer was no. Matt’s mom did not approve of her son hanging out with Josh; she thought he was a bad influence.

“Nope, neither of them will be home until like 11:00pm but my sister will be home in like two hours”.

“Cool. So you want to start with the harmonies or from the beginning?” Josh was pretty sure he knew what Matt’s answer was going to be since the other boy kept getting confused about which parts he was supposed to sing.

“Umm, from the beginning” replied Matt after a couple of minutes of thought. “So what’s going on with you today? You’ve been acting weird all day”.

Josh froze at the unexpected question; Matt wasn’t usually the type to bring stuff like that up. He could just tell him maybe Matt could tell him what he should do. 

“Nothing is going on; I’m just kind of tired. Couldn’t sleep last night too busy thinking about the gig on Wednesday.” “Why did I say that?” thought Josh, he could have told Matt but he’d missed his opportunity. 

“Okay, whatever you say man. Can we just get to practicing now? I really need to get this learned.” Matt was frustrated with the whole situation, he knew something was going on with his friend and he wished that for once Josh would just trust him with whatever it was.

Two days later Josh had survived another two days of school with Danny still ignoring him. He still hadn’t told Matt or anyone else about what had happened and didn’t plan on it anytime soon. He really couldn’t be thinking about that though, he needed to focus on the show he was doing that night with his band Marianas Trench. It wasn’t a big show, just happy hour at a little bar downtown, but it was something and Josh was going to make the most of it. He could only hope the rest of the guys were as dedicated as he was. Relieved when the other three guys arrived, Matt had come with him since he was only fifteen and it was easier to set up with two of them doing it. Two hours later they were heading home after a seemingly successful gig; no one had booed or thrown anything at them, so Josh was free to think about his Danny problem again.

After three weeks of wondering what Danny had done with the pictures, Josh had finally decided to tell Matt. He really needed someone to talk to about what he should do, especially since Danny and his friends had started harassing him again after the first week. Josh was pretty sure he could trust Matt to keep a secret if he asked him to; Matt was a good friend like that. Matt had invited him over to hang out after school so he was going to tell him then, hopefully Matt wouldn’t overreact. 

“Hey Josh” Matt greeted as he approached his friends car after school. Josh was leaning against the hood casually smoking a cigarette, a habit Matt really wished the older boy would give up.

“Hey” replied Josh, “you ready to go?”

“Yup” answered Matt rolling his eyes, “obviously.” He got in the car watching as Josh stubbed his cigarette out; he never smoked in the car because his parents might notice the smell. Sometimes Matt wondered what else Josh was into, he was awfully secretive for smoking to be the only less than desirable habit he had. Matt had no intentions of ever confronting his friend about it though; he liked their friendship the way it was.

The drive to Matt’s house was silent and kind of freaked Josh out a bit but he figured Matt was probably just irritated that he had been smoking again. Cigarettes were far from the worst thing he had ever smoked but Matt never needed to know that. When they arrived at their destination Matt jumped out and unlocked the house then waited for Josh to get his guitar before entering. Since he waited Josh figured he wasn’t too mad so it would still be safe to tell him about the incident with Danny. He could only hope Matt wouldn’t freak out.

“Matt, I have something I want to tell you but first you have to promise not to tell anyone” started Josh once they were settled on the couch to watch Back to the Future.

Matt looked up startled, Josh volunteering to tell him something? That was very unusual. “Sure, I won’t tell anyone, I promise” responded Matt sincerely.

“This is kind of embarrassing but remember a few weeks ago when I was acting like a space cadet? The reason for that was that a few days before Danny Sands and a couple of his friends kind of took some pictures of me, in the shower, naked. So pretty much the entire week afterwards I was internally freaking out about it.” After he finished Josh glanced up at Matt to try and gauge his reaction, Matt looked shocked and a bit confused. 

“Seriously? What the fuck? Why would they do that? Why did you wait until now to tell someone? What the fuck is wrong with them?” Matt couldn’t believe anyone would do something like that; he knew Danny and his friends hated Josh but that was messed up even for them.

“I have no idea why they did that or what they got out of it. I kind of expected the pictures to be all over school that Monday but so far they haven’t even taunted me with it. I didn’t tell anyone because I have no evidence and who would believe me over them? Plus it’s humiliating and I don’t want anyone to know” Josh explained to Matt the best he could. At least Matt seemed to believe him and wasn’t demanding he tell his parents or something.

“What those assholes did is seriously fucked up, maybe even illegal. I really think you should at least tell your parents but I’m not going to try to force you if you don’t want to” said Matt seriously. This was so beyond what Matt knew how to deal with and he kind of wanted to tell his mom but then Josh would never trust him again.

“So that’s your advice? Tell my parents? They’ll freak out for sure and want to talk to the school, maybe the cops. It would be a nightmare Matt, I can’t tell them. It doesn’t seem like Danny plans to do anything with the pictures so maybe I should just forget it even happened”.

“You can’t be serious. You’re just going to let them get away with that shit? Why did you even tell me if that’s your plan? You’re basically telling Danny he can do whatever he wants and you’ll do nothing.” Matt was so mad he could hardly see straight. How could Josh let Danny get away with it? He really didn’t understand his friend sometimes.

“What am I supposed to do Matt? No one is going to believe me over the captain of the hockey team so I’ll just get humiliated for nothing. I’m sorry I told you and made this your problem too, I shouldn’t have. I just needed to tell someone, you know?” Josh started out almost yelling but ended softly.

“Well if you’re sure…I promised not to tell anyone and I’m not going to but I really do recommend telling your parents. They’re adults, they’ll probably know what to do and Danny should be punished for that fucked up shit. Now can we just watch the movie please?” Matt felt he had done his part as Josh’s friend after that last statement.

“Your opinion has been noted and is being considered. As for us watching the movie goes, let’s do it. Enough of the heavy shit” replied Josh.

Over the next several weeks Josh thought long and hard about telling his parents but no matter how much he wanted to tell them he just couldn’t bring himself to actually do it. About eight weeks after his conversation with Matt, around the end of November, the decision was pretty much taken from him when Danny’s parents threatened to charge Matt with assault. From what Josh had heard from his parents and around school Matt had overheard Danny joking about some of the stuff he had done to Josh and Matt had snapped and punched him. It wouldn’t have been a huge deal except Matt had broken Danny’s jaw and Danny’s parents wanted Matt to be severely punished for that.

So to convince the Sands not to press charges Josh was being forced to tell his parents and the police everything that had gone on between him and Danny the last few months. Well he wasn’t actually being forced since he didn’t want Matt to go to juvie but he never would have told anyone this stuff if Matt hadn’t done something so stupid. So now his parents knew everything, knew how pathetic he was, and he could really do without the heartbroken look on his moms face. The good news was that the Sands’ had agreed not to pursue charges against Matt and Josh’s parents also decided that pursuing criminal charges would not be the best option. For punching Danny Matt was given a five day suspension and banned from all school activities for the rest of the school year. Danny was expelled for bullying, which was against the school code of conduct, much to Josh’s surprise. So now it was all out in the open and Josh was not looking forward to the conversation that was going to happen when he and his parents got home.

Josh tried to bolt downstairs to his room as soon as they got home but his mom stopped him. He followed her into the living room, stomach churning; this was going to be so much worse than telling the principal and the police. His parents both looked so sad and confused and a bit hurt and he couldn’t stand to look at them anymore so he sat in his favourite armchair and stared at his hands waiting for one of his parents to speak. His parents sat across from him on the couch and he heard his father clear his throat, here it comes Josh thought.

“Why didn’t you tell us about any of this before now, honey?” asked Mrs. Ramsay distress clear in her voice.

“It wasn’t a big deal mom” responded Josh still staring at his hands, “I can take a bit of harassment, I’m used to it. When you wear nail polish to school and you’re a guy you kind of have to expect to be tormented to some extent.”   
“Josh” Mr. Ramsay sighed, “You don’t have to just deal with harassment. Wearing nail polish or anything else does not give that boy or anyone the right to bully you. If you had told us we could have done something sooner. We’re here to help you, we love you, you don’t have to do everything yourself. Let us help you, let Matt and Andrew help too, that’s what family and friends are for after all.” 

“I know Dad and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you” Josh tried to placate his father, “I just thought it would be better if I handled it. It was also kind of humiliating, especially the picture incident. Plus I didn’t want to bother you guys with something minor like that, I know you’re busy and your jobs are important. I know you love me, I love you guys too.”

“Josh, you’re our son, you wouldn’t be bothering us and that was not a minor thing. The picture incident could be considered child pornography, that’s serious, and we want to be sure you know that you will always be more important to us than our jobs. I would feel much better if you promised that from now on if you have a problem you talk to us, deal?” implored Mrs. Ramsay.

“I’ll promise to try if that will make you feel better” answered Josh even though he knew he was lying through his teeth. There was so much about his life that his parents didn’t and couldn’t know about.

“It will have to do” said Mr. Ramsay. “Don’t tell Matthew I said this and remember that I do not condone violence but I’m glad that Matt hit that Danny kid.” 

“Me too” whispered Josh finally looking up and meeting his father’s eyes. Josh could tell the conversation was over so he quickly retreated to his room before they changed their minds. It was over, his parents had found out one of his big secrets and nothing terrible happened and he’d never have to see Danny again. Surprisingly Josh only felt relief; he was glad Matt had punched Danny and subsequently forced him to tell his secret about the pictures and the harassment. Josh really hoped this was a sign that things were about to start getting better. 

End


End file.
